“I’ve got some errands to run.”
And a lot of aggravation to work out.
17
Two hot cocoas in my hand and I was on my way to Zab’s. Whatever he had planned for today was going to be easier than what I’d done all day. I felt like I could barely straighten up after Bautere had handed me my ass all day. Still, I’d stopped for cocoa because I couldn’t show up empty-handed with all the help Zab was giving me.
I made a right, only a few minutes from his place when I saw two familiar faces up ahead, Braid and Spike. I would’ve called after them but was fairly certain that would only make them walk faster. I’d have to chase them down.
Cocoa or info. This should’ve been an easier choice, but I really did like my cocoa. Still, I needed to know who’d dragged me back here. Were they friend or foe?
I walked as fast as I could to Zab’s, put the two cocoas on the stoop, and then ran. They might be lukewarm when I got back, but it would have to do. It was the best compromise possible at the moment.
People stared as I took off down the street. Braid noticed first, seeing the attention I was getting and glancing behind him. He said something to Spike, and then they both ran.
“I just want to talk to you!”
“We have nothing to say!” Spike yelled, as he kept going.
Lucky for me, neither of them were very fast. They were both huffing as I continued to gain on them.
We passed the buildings and were in a field when Braid dropped to his knees, a palm to the ground, dragging in air like his life depended on it.
Spike hesitated for a second, looked at me, looked at Braid again, and then kept running. I let him go. I only needed one, and Braid had seemed the smarter of the two anyway.
I circled until I was leaning over him, a bit short of wind myself.
He put up a hand. “Don’t hurt me! It wasn’t my fault. I was only doing a job.”
“For who?” I asked. Whoever it had been, they’d given him a lofty view of my current abilities.
“I don’t know. I got an envelope filled with cash and a warning that you weren’t to be harmed.”
So, a friend or protective of their assets, like some other people I knew. Not for a second did I think it was Hawk, though. He couldn’t wait to get me out of here.
“What else did your instructions say?”
He tried to crawl a few steps away from me, but I followed him. “Nothing. Just that you were very strong and very important. That I should drop you off somewhere in the vicinity of the Sweet Shop before cutting you loose.”
That made zero sense, and yet I didn’t think he was lying. Braid and Spike were grunt workers. I’d met enough of them at this point to tell. They took orders. They didn’t mastermind anything.
“And then what? Someone was going to kill me there?”
“I don’t know. I was supposed to just leave you there.” He moved back and then fell on his ass.
I pointed my finger at him, jabbing it at the air like I could actually do something on purpose. “Don’t lie to me. What else? There had to be something else.”
“That’s it. I swear!” He put hands together in front of me. “Please, I was just doing a job. I can find the note and show you if you don’t kill me.” He sniffed suspiciously.
He was telling the truth, or something close, even if it did make zero sense. Whoever had hired him had clearly put the fear of God into him.
“Fine. I believe you, but if I ever find out you lied to me…”
“You won’t.” He got back on his knees and then fell backward again in his need to scramble away from me, crawling a few feet before getting to his feet. He kept his eyes on me as he circled until he got far enough away to start running again.
If possible, this place just got stranger. I made my way back toward Zab’s with no more information than before. Why would someone grab me and drop me off in the middle of the road, right near the Sweet Shop, of all places? An area where I might have some allies? Were they hoping another herd of grouslies would get me?
Zab was standing on his stoop with the two abandoned cocoas. “Have some pressing business?”
“Something like that. Can you heat those up? I always boil them over when I try.”
“Already done,” he said, handing me back a toasty cup as we walked inside his place.
I tossed my jacket on his couch. “I just saw Braid and Spike. I was trying to get answers about who hired them to bring me back here.”
“And?”
“Clueless, as expected. Said they got an envelope with cash and instructions not to hurt me and to drop me off near the Sweet Shop.” I sipped my cocoa as his face skewed, probably a mirror image of mine a few minutes ago.
He put his cocoa down as he stared at me, as if I’d have more answers.
When there was no more information forthcoming, he said, “But that makes no sense.”
“I know. If it was a setup of some sort to try to sabotage me, why stress that I shouldn’t be hurt? Why drop me so close to here and possible allies?”
He took another couple of sips of cocoa before he said, “It almost sounds as if this was someone trying to help you,” shaking his head.
“Why not come forward after I’m here?”
He was shaking his head still. Then he squinted and leaned close to my hair.
“What? Is there a bug or something?” I asked, running a hand through my locks.
“No. You’re turning, is all,” he said, as if I’d have a clue what he was talking about.
“Are you saying I have a grey hair?”
“Looks like a pink one and a turquoise not far from it. Interesting.”
“What do you mean?” I didn’t wait for him to explain and went to his bathroom, leaning in close to the mirror. He was right. I had weird colors growing in my hair. “What is this? Is it a curse or something?” I asked Zab, who’d followed me in and was looking for more strands of oddness in the back of my head.
“No more a curse than mine. Just happens with some people. Although typically when it happens, it’s one color. I guess your magic shines a multitude. Never seen that before.”
“You mean you don’t dye the tips of your hair blue?”
He laughed. “That would be way too much work. It’s just the color it grows, sometimes brighter or paler depending on how much magic I’ve been using.”
“So I’m going to have rainbow hair?” I had to follow him out into the living room because he’d already moved on from his curiosity.
“I don’t think so. Looks like just streaks. Mine doesn’t turn until it’s grown in. Yours looks like it’s going to start from the roots, but not all over. It happens to some of us. It’s like a genetic thing. Yours should be an interesting look. I don’t think I’ve ever seen that color pattern grow in before.”
“How bad do you think it’ll get? Do you see any more?” I asked, leaning my head in front of him, forcing him to keep looking.
“Oh, here’s a silver that sparkles. That’s pretty cool.”
I didn’t want my hair to sparkle. I didn’t want an interesting look. The last person who’d seen me light up like a rainbow had called me evil.
I grabbed the mass of it and twisted it into a bun. “I’m going to have to dye it.”
He laughed. “You can’t dye it. It won’t take. It won’t even stick to it.”
I leaned both hands on his table. I’d made a decision not to hide anymore, but this felt like I’d be wearing a banner around, screaming to everyone just how different I was, even in the land of different.
He pointed to my hair. “Bun isn’t a good idea. You’ve got some yellow coming in along the hairline in the back.”
I yanked the bun out. It was useless and it shouldn’t matter. This was who I was. I’d wanted to come back to Xest so I didn’t have to hide. Why fight so hard to be here if I was going to act the same way I had my entire life in Salem? If I was going to be that girl, the one who hid, why bother fighting at all? I
should just give up now.
“You okay?” Zab asked. “I think it’s going to look pretty, but if you’d been hoping for green or something, I can understand the disappointment. I personally would prefer what you have, but we’ve all got our preferences.”
I didn’t hide. I would not be that girl anymore.
“No. I’m good with it. It’s part of me, and that’s okay.”
“I think it’s going to be hot.”
I refused to toy with my hair even as Zab kept looking at it.
“It really is interesting how you’ve got a multitude of colors, though. Seriously. I’ve never seen that.”
“Yeah, interesting. So what are we working on today?” I was more than ready to move on to a new subject.
“Oh, uh, some charms.” He pointed to the pile of crystals, furry-feet-looking things, twigs twisted into the shape of people, and stuff I couldn’t put a name to. “Good-luck charm or bad luck? Pick your poison.”
“Good luck. Definitely good luck.” I wasn’t going anywhere near a bad-luck charm. I was quite capable of handling that one on my own.
18
“You’re not paying attention,” Bautere said.
“I can honestly say I was doing the best I possibly could.” I was flat on my back in the snow for the fifteenth time. No one did this on purpose.
“You’d be dead if you were fighting for real,” he said, ending on a growl.
“Isn’t this why you’re training me?” I asked, sitting up and then getting to my feet again. “Wouldn’t it be better if we focused on using some magic? I’ve never been good at combat sports.”
Getting pushed to the ground over and over again wasn’t what I’d thought I was signing up for. If I was going to become kickass by pure physical standards, I was going to need another ten years.
“What do you think we’re doing?” he growled.
The growls didn’t have the same effect they used to after you’d heard a good twenty.
“I’m supposed to be using magic?” He was not the trainer I’d hoped for, that was definite. Was there another Bautere around I could talk to?
“When your magic becomes one with every movement you make, then you’ll be ready,” he said, getting in the crouching position that told me I was going to be crashing into the snow again.
“How do I do that?” I asked, crouching, waiting for his attack.
“You visualize it. You let the magic flow through you. You don’t try to control it. You are it. It is you.”
“What if it doesn’t want to be me and I can’t seem to make it?” I was squeezing in every free moment to practice with him, even when that meant almost no sleep. “My magic doesn’t like to do what it’s supposed to.”
“Then you practice until it does.”
It all sounded good. Somehow I was supposed to be able to leap over his back as he lunged for me. Then hit him from overhead as I landed.
I tried to let the magic flow freely through my body. And when he lunged, I crashed into the snow on the side.
A few hours later, I sipped on something that tasted like tequila as I stood behind the bar at Zark’s. It wouldn’t fix the soreness of my muscles and bruises, but it would make me forget about them for a while.
It was only an hour into my shift when Hawk strolled into the place, walked up to the bar, and said, “We need to go somewhere.”
The line of his jaw told me that whatever this was about, it wasn’t good.
“I can’t just leave. I’m working.” Even if my working was standing in the vicinity of Gregor as he served most of the drinks. It was still a paycheck.
“Zark, Tippi’s done for the day,” Hawk said, not breaking eye contact with me. “Shall I get your jacket, or would you like to?”
I was well aware we had a crowd listening in, because as we talked, they didn’t. Gregor also inched closer. I shook my head, telling him I had this under control.
Gregor didn’t back up, but he also didn’t pursue it. We’d already done this rodeo once before. He knew the ropes.
“I have a job to do,” I said to Hawk with steel laced in my tone. This was it. This was the hill I would die on. He would not take control of my life again. If that meant an all-out brawl in the middle of Zark’s with an audience, then that was the way it was going to happen.
A hand holding my jacket shot out in front of me.
“Here you go. See you tomorrow,” Zark said. “Best be on your way.”
Okay, maybe this wasn’t the hill I’d die on, since the owner of said hill seemed to be pushing me down it. But that hill was coming. Seemed there were hills all around me, just waiting for someone to die, and that would be me. Just not today, maybe.
I took my coat as Hawk smiled.
I didn’t ask what Hawk wanted until we got outside. And then he was too far ahead of me to ask. I looked back at Zark’s, knowing I’d only get shown the door again if I attempted to go back. I looked down the street, toward the broker’s office, debating on going there. But then I’d have to watch Bibbi working at my table. Might as well follow him and find out what he wanted, since work was done for the day.
“Keep up,” he said, not bothering to look back or realize that maybe I wasn’t keeping up for a reason. The more space, the better. He was testy, I was angry, and together we were on the brink of something much worse.
I wasn’t going to ask him what his problem was because it was his, not mine. As soon as I asked, I’d take ownership on some level. That was what always happened when I asked about someone else’s problem. It was like buying stock in a company that you knew was about to nosedive, and I wasn’t doing it. He could be as quiet as he wanted and hold it all in, the way he probably preferred.
He kept moving at his pace, and I continued at mine in the direction of the wall. Not sure why we were walking the whole way, but I wasn’t asking about that either. If he had to wait for me to catch up once he got there, then he waited. I wasn’t his employee. I was here because I chose to help, and he’d have to deal with that whatever way I chose to do it.
He stopped again, further up the hill, watching me move at my slower pace, as if his steely stare would speed me up.
Not.
They must’ve put salt in his morning cocoa the way he was acting. All the shit he’d done to me, and here he was with the attitude and no explanation.
I passed him on the hill, wondering when he was going to decide to walk again but not really caring. I could go look at the cracks myself, and there were definitely either new ones or worsened ones. The feeling of dread hadn’t been this bad here yesterday.
I got to the wall, and there it was. You didn’t need to run a hand over this one to see how badly it was breaking. One side jutted out several more inches than the other.
I laid a hand on the break anyway, trying to feel for something, a way to heal it or a magical signature. Anything.
“How does this keep happening?” I asked, not specifically talking to Hawk. He didn’t have any answers either.
“I think it’s sabotage,” Hawk said, answering anyway. “Feel over here,” he said, pointing five feet away. “There’s a strange feeling.”
I did as he suggested. Any other place I laid my hand, I would either feel my magic or its magic. This was different. There wasn’t even a clear signal, more of a muddy feeling.
I looked up at him, the question obvious on my face.
“That’s what it feels like when someone is disguising their mark,” he said.
“Six. If it is them, they’re making ground and we’re losing it.” I took a couple of steps back, taking the whole of this newer one in, standing shoulder to shoulder with Hawk.
“Come on. Let’s check the rest.”
We made the rest of the rounds in silence, coming to a truce of sorts. Hawk and I had our differences, but with this, we were one hundred percent in sync. Our feud was shed the moment we got here.
As we finished, I saw a door waiting in the distance. Our short moment of p
eace seemed to be going away.
He waited beside it. “Are you coming, or do you have somewhere else to be?”
“I’ll gladly take the shortcut, thank you.” I walked into the hall of the broker building before I added, “This gets me closer to where I need to be. I have plans for the evening.”
His eyes narrowed on me with a level of heat I’d not yet seen directed my way.
I walked downstairs a little faster than normal, hitting the landing and heading into the offices and then the back room instead. If he was going to pursue this fight, I’d rather do it here, where there was a door, than in my bedroom.
When he didn’t immediately follow, I thought it was over, that he’d left. Good.
I was sipping tea on the couch when Hawk walked in and decided to stand a few feet in front of me. It was his dictator pose, one I was all too familiar with. I continued to drink my tea, pretending I wasn’t sitting in the shadow of his looming self.
“I can’t have someone on my team that can’t defend themselves. I can’t even leave to handle things without you disappearing when half of Xest wants you dead.”
It would’ve been all too easy to tell him I was working on how to defend myself. Several big issues, though. It wasn’t any of his business. There was no way I’d tell him just to end a fight. If I gave in and told him about my secret training, then what? He’d think he was entitled to know everything I did?
And come to think of it, what did he know about my disappearing?
“Do you have people tracking me or something? I didn’t know I was supposed to report every single place I went to you. Now that I know, I’ll make sure I still don’t do it.”
“You’re not listening. You don’t realize what some of these people will do.” He leaned forward, putting one hand on the arm of the couch and the other on the back, effectively forcing me backward unless I wanted to end up hugging him.
“Because I don’t have to listen to you. Also, I’m not on your team. And second, you’re crowding me.”
“If you could defend yourself, I wouldn’t be able to crowd you. I wouldn’t have to force you back here. I wouldn’t have to worry about you dying every time you walked out the door.”
The Nowhere Witch (Tales of Xest Book 2) Page 11